The final weekend of play in the provincial Molson Challenge Cup Men’s Soccer League is being hosted in St. Lawrence this weekend.
Four games are scheduled this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Centennial Field.
The top four teams in the summer schedule – league leaders Holy Cross of St. John’s, St. Lawrence Laurentians, Mount Pearl and St. John’s Feildians – will take to the pitch in the Burin Peninsula centre.
The winner will represent the province at the Canadian Challenge Cup Championships Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Last week’s mid-week game saw Mount Pearl shutout CB Auto Strikers 3-0 with Justin Pickford booting two goals at 36 and 57 minutes. Tyler Putt had the blanking in goal.
During this past weekend, Mount Pearl took advantage of an opportunity to overtake the Laurentians for second place in the standings with games against Feildians and St. Lawrence.
Mount Pearl blanked Feildians 3-0 on the strength of three goals from Justin Pickford Saturday, before battling to a 1-1 draw against the Laurentians Sunday.
All the top four teams were playing two matches as a prelude to the Labour Day Weekend finale.
The Laurentians were in St. John’s as well to take on Holy Cross Saturday, which ended in a scoreless tie. Meanwhile, Cross hammered Feildians 6-1 Sunday.
The previous weekend in provincial Challenge Cup men’s soccer saw the withdrawal, or default, from competition of Corner Brook Western United.
The last place team identified in an e-mail to the Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer Association an inability to any longer field a team during the rest of the season. It was emphasized the team is sound financially, but a lack of commitment from players combined with injuries resulted in the pullout.
The St. Lawrence Laurentians took to the pitch on the Avalon and captured two victories to pull within five points of league leaders Holy Cross.
Shane Etchegary posted the shutout as the Laurentians blanked the CB Strikers 3-0. Brent Kelly had two goals, at 8 and 64 minutes, and Mike Howlett his league leading 19th tally at 87 minutes. St. Lawrence also claimed a 3-1 victory over St. John’s Feildians. Kelly opened the scoring at nine minutes with Ryan Slaney scoring the winner a 51 and Howlett adding an insurance marker at 61 minutes. Chad Seymore finally got the Feildians on the scoreboard at 65 minutes.
Western United forfeited both of its scheduled games that weekend to Holy Cross and Mount Pearl, with both those teams awarded three points in the overall team standings.
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